wordcount: 6,835 (+3)
Midna: level 4 EXP:
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Location: Sandswept Sky - Al Mamoon
Location: Sandswept Sky - Al Mamoon
Level: (5/20) -> (8/20)
Word Count: 6,835 (+3)
There were no further additions to be made to the plan, and so after Midna and Sectonia taught the wolfos to cooperate with one of the ant creatures, the rescue party was sent off and the remaining heroes gathered up onto the train and set off once more.
Red was overall content that people were agreeing with her and not giving her any shit for refusing to help out. She was perfectly happy letting the queen and the princess handle this situation with their minions. Though she had to practically restrain herself from opening fire at the strange looking wolf Midna summoned. She still got that fight or flight response anytime she saw a wolf, and typically that reaction was fight. But pissing off a group of strangers with heavy assortments of weird powers and abilities was not good for her health, so she held back reluctantly. But that didn’t stop her from occasionally keeping an eye on Midna afterwards, although sitting next to her on the train wasn’t intentional.
The Princess found herself watching the horizon behind them as they sped off, observing as her mount and the team of magical minions setting off into the desert together on their one adventure, as if she would be able to spot them succeeding so soon after heading off. In short order both they and the great pit were left in the dust however, and so she turned her attention to the occupants of the passenger cart and found herself sitting next too…
”I don't think we’ve been introduced?” she said to the red hooded woman who had joined the party while the princess was sneaking around the village. Masked by a bandana mimicking a thousand fanged maw and armed with a brutal axe that was more blade than handle and a pistol of some kind she had an intimidating look, let down only by the fact that she was surrounded by people who regularly bent the elements and reality itself to their own destructive ends.
”I’m Midna” she guessed the woman wouldn't care for royal titles,
”What’s your name? And deal while we’re at it” The red cloaked girl looked down at the figure of the smaller woman sitting next to her. Apparently her name was Midna apparently, and she wasn’t there when Red first introduced herself.
“Don’t really have a name anymore, but back home I got called Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary. But they suck at naming things sometimes so just call me Red.” She considered the best way to answer her second question for a moment. There were a lot of different ways she could answer this and still be truthful.
“I’m a wandering mercenary,” she started after deciding this would be the easiest way to go about it.
“I’ll take just about any job for the right price while I look for info on a personal target of mine from my world. And your group here seems like it’ll be a perfect opportunity to explore this world and try to track him down so I’ll help ya out along the way. Seems like you all are more familiar with this world than me and like you have some bigger purpose.” After explaining her own situation a bit to Midna she decided to turn the question back around on her.
“So what’s your deal then? You and this ragtag group you’re in. Doesn’t seem like you're all from this world either.””That really is a mouthful, Red is much nicer,” she agreed, though the entire context surrounding the giving of it raised so many other questions. They could wait though, it would be rude not to answer the woman’s own.
Not that it was an easy one. Apparently no one had tried to fill her in much before now, though then again when had there been the time?
”and no, I suppose you could say we aren't from this world. Most people don't notice that though.” something about the nature of her home world was letting her grasp around the edges of the nature of this one, which was interesting and, possibly, helpful.
”Don’t suppose the name Galeem means anything to you? Doesn’t really matter if not.” how to explain that if she didn't, Midna wondered. Patterns. She’d been thinking a lot about patterns recently. Stories too, and there was a straightforward one here that she could tell that might be able to slip most of the truth past the sun made blind spot.
”There's a sleeping evil, a destroyer of worlds, protected by thirteen guardians scarred across the land. We, along with a whole bunch of other people, are hunting down those guardians, gathering powers, weapons and allies as we go, so that in the end we can take the fight to Galeem and end them before they can do any more harm. That whole being from different worlds thing you noticed? All them.” she explained in abstract
Red was completely taken aback when she heard the absolute scale of what was going on. This really was on the scale of multiple worlds like she had assumed. This strange being named Galeem apparently was the cause of it too.
“Huh… didn’t expect that, I’m gonna be honest with you. An assorted group of heroes from other worlds trying to save the world.” She honestly couldn’t help but laugh a little at the absurdity of her statement.
“Not that I’m too concerned. Still better than my world, and I get to kill some really tough targets. I think I’ll definitely stick with you guys then. See what I can do against that Galeem thing whatever it is while I’m here.” She cracked her knuckles as if she was ready to get to work already.
“How many of these guardians you mentioned have been defeated? Just so I can see the progress so far.” She didn’t really understand anything about this ‘Galeem’ but she had an assumption. There’s only one being with holy light like that and had anything akin to guardians. White Night, an angelic and godly being that turned employees into horrific beasts called apostles. It was the only thing that fit the bill and had enough power to bring her to a weird place like this.
”Just like that?” Midna was a little surprised how easy that had been. Then again her last attempt had been with Crow who, all things considered, was a bit of an outlier, so she shrugged of her own bit of surprise and said
”We’ll be glad to have you onside”So there's three down so far” Midna (incorrectly) informed her
”and we’re working on number four here, who should be at the top of the mountain” there was absolutely no need to clarify as to which mountain
”while another group are working on number five down by (or maybe in) the ocean to the south west. So we’ve made a start at it, but there's still plenty more targets for you to test your metal against” ”Also that's the second time you’ve mentioned your world in not so favorable terms. What’s it like, if that isn't a difficult question and if you don't mind me asking?” Red just shrugged at her new acquaintances' surprise.
“It’s not my first rodeo dealing with time and space altering bullshit. Nothing really surprises me that much anymore.” The mercenary listened intently to the intel she was being given. She really was treating this like she was taking another job. Only this time the payment was the thrill of the fight against otherworldly beings she wasn’t familiar with. Sounded like a good deal to her.
“Oh, there’s so much I could tell you about that hellhole.” Red said with a bit of a dry laugh. She’d seem quite a bit of the horrors in the world before getting stuck inside that facility.
“There’s 25 corporations called the Wings that control most everything and then the Head that controls all of them. Each corporation has some special unique thing called a Singularity, like W Corp and their warp technology. Their trains can get you just about anywhere in only ten seconds. Each Corp has a Nest, basically a city under their control where life is normal and dreary. Outside of the privileged Nests are the Backstreets. Criminals, gangs, just about anything goes out there. I won’t go into too much detail but there’s a lot of death out there. And even worse shit like unnatural monsters the farther out you go.”Red looked around a little suspiciously and started speaking a little quieter.
“The worst wing was Lobotomy Corp though. L Corp captured monsters called Abnormalities and somehow created energy from them. That’s where I was stuck before I wound up here. Luckily my target was there too so we got to duke it out every so often, and I got to fight some really weird creatures too so it wasn’t all bad.” Realizing she had probably rambled on for a little bit too long she leaned back and settled down.
“But anyway, you don’t look like you’re human either. Where are you from?” She asked, feeling it was only fair that she get some info in return for what she shared.
”That does sound pretty messed up” she didn't know what a cooperation, but given the state of the world they were in control of the must be some kind of evil organization. Or they were barely in control and just incomptent supremely. or both.
”I’m a Twili.” she replied when asked what she was
”Or was. I got cursed and turned into an imp and then I’ve taken on the spirit of a very tall woman and a dragon since then so I don’t exactly look like one any more. Used to be tall, slender, grey skin, lovely orange hair, actual... You know” she vaguely indicated to her everything.
Rather than linger on what she’d lost physically she moved on to what she'd lost emotionally
”and the Twili like me, we’re from the realm of twilight. It’s a realm of floating islands in a perpetually dark void where the only real light is that created by magical Sols. It sounds dreary I know I know, but it’s actually pretty nice. We’ve got moving platforms and teleporters and we’ve made a decent and comfortable life for ourselves there. Our ancestors got sent there from Hyrule which is a world more like this… well there is a desert but that's not the main part. Sunshine and grass and humans and so on. Pretty sure it wasn't ring shaped though. Also no secret monster energy places in either of those, as far as I know. Pretty sure Zelda wouldn't condone that, and I certainly wouldn't back at home either. I’m not sure how you’d even turn a moblin into power without making it run on a wheel or something like that. That would be cruel, even if they are dangerous raiders.”Minda halted her musings and looked over the woman and realized something she hadn't picked up on originally
”So. Wait. You said I ‘don’t look like you’re human either’ and that they locked you up with the, well, the monsters. So does that make you an ‘Abnormality’ then?” she asked, before scrunching up her face like the word had been responsive in her mouth and saying
”Ech, that is a ugly thing to call a person... But what does it mean?” “Damn, sounds like you got put through the wringer little lady. What even happened to get cursed like that?” Red said with a little bit of sympathy for Midna.
“Sounds like both you and your realm were rather beautiful though. Despite the lack of light you mentioned, that sounds like a sight to see. Even though I have no idea what you mean by taking on a spirit. Is that some special power your race has or something?” It was probably increasingly obvious by now that the poor mercenary had literally no idea about anything of this weird world.
She laughed a bit as Midna finally came to the conclusion that Red was in fact not a human.
“Yup, I’m an Abnormality. One of those monsters. Though it’s hard to really explain what it means other than… we’re not normal. An assortment of creatures, people and objects that just can’t be explained and produce large amounts of power. Some might call me lucky that I retained this much of myself, after all some of them are mindless beasts with nothing left inside of them.” It was surprisingly hard trying to explain the concept of abnormalities considering it was practically commonplace for her.
“Some were humans at one point, some are objects that were created, and some were just born that way. But each and every one is unique and horrifying, so let’s hope I’m the only one that made its way to this world. Even though I’d love to hunt that wolf down while I’m here.””I got elected to be the Princess of Twilight, but one of the other claimants, Zant, decided to make a deal with our world's most ancient evil to take the kingdom by force. Then he turned me into an imp and banished me to Hyrule. Then he invaded Hyrule, which was a big mistake because in the long run it let me get back home and kill both him and his benefactor. That was the first time it happened. Second time this bitch called Cia tore time apart and, probably because she saw it happen the first time around due to being a guardian of time before going crazy, thought that for some reason doing it again would stop me from stopping her. Didn’t work for Zant, didn't work for Cia either, though I didn't have time to work out how to undo it the second time around before, well, this whole Galeem thing” she explained the history of her form. Considering the way she’d gotten out of it the first time was dying and being resurrected... Spirit absorption was maybe a safer option.
Speaking of which, Red needed filling in on those too.
”As for spirits, that's part of the whole Galeem deal. Anything that dies here leaves behind a spirit. A little glowing mote which you can see what it used to be. You might remember seeing the robots leaving those? You can use them to gain power. Put one in your head for wisdom, heart for power, crush it for weapons or make a ‘deal’ with it to bring it back for a few moments to aid you in a fight in person. It’s strange, it can mess with your mind a little and your body a fair bit (I didn't always have a tail) and your clothes a lot, but hey. Power’s power.” she clicked her fingers and ignited them with a dragon claw for a moment, before dissipating it again.
”Sectonia used one since you met her. She didn't always have that hat or the, ah, mouth” she pointed out as an example of the possible transformation
”and she can slow down or speed up time in a localized area now because of it.” ”They’d probably call all my people abnormalities,”she commented when told about what an abnormality was
”our ancestors used to be human before getting gradually warped by/adapting to the Twilight realm, though we don’t have any kind of innate power... other than magic I guess?” it was mundane to her, but maybe not to those people. The interloper's blood certainly ran strong with the stuff.
”As for if the ones you're worried about, and the one you want, are here, well, there's all sorts of things here so there's a possibility, but there also isn’t nearly enough space for everything to have ended up on this world going simply by the sheer amount of worlds stuff seems to be drawn from. It would take this train… two or three weeks, to go round the whole thing if it was able too? I’m guessing. It’s hard to tell how far we’ve traveled, but this desert is about an eight to a tenth of what we know exists? There’s a map, but it’s vague and we don't have a copy. Maybe we can find another one or I can sketch from memory for you some time?” She suggested.
Then she asked
”So what does being an... so what can you do?” Red actually listened very intently to Midna’s story about her past. Everything about it was so magical and fantastical compared to what she was used to. After all, even the ‘magical’ things she encountered ended up being equally as horrifying as everything else. But this seemed more like an amazing adventure.
“Hell yeah, sounds like you absolutely taught them a lesson for pulling that shit on you. I can respect that. Though to be honest I didn’t take you for a princess at all.” After realizing how rude that could possibly sound she quickly corrected herself.
“Not that I mean that in a bad way. You’re just definitely on the cooler end of rulers I’ve met, I’m used to them being pretentious or not caring like that one back in Parnasse.””Don’t worry, I’ll take that as a compliment” Minda told her, waving off Red’s concern about having upset her breezily.
Though the topic of spirits started getting her extremely excited. If she wasn’t wearing that mask she’d probably be looking giddy.
“I did notice she looked different but at this point I wasn’t gonna question it.” Her mind was already racing with ideas of how effective this could be for her. She could have an arsenal of weapons from enemies she defeats, or enhance her own powers quite a bit with fusion. She was already thinking of what she’d look like if she absorbed the spirits of some things back home. Or even getting a hand on those weapons employees got from Abnormalities. She had so much potential to be an even more effective killing machine.
When they got back to the subject of the state of the world and the team's current progress she was extremely attentive. It seems a lot from each of their worlds got left out in creating this world, especially since it seemed this world wasn’t crazy large from Midna’s statement though she’d want to verify that herself.
“We can get that sorted out at some point. I haven’t left the desert yet so I’m curious what else there is.” “Well unfortunately I don’t have any super crazy powers like some of them do, can’t turn into a laser shooting dragon or teleport or possess people or any of that shit.” Red said as she started trying to explain her abilities.
“But I can still keep up with and hunt down a decent amount of those things. I guess it’d be easier to show you…” Suddenly an idea struck her, after all she hadn’t had a decent fight since she got here.
“How about a little sparring match once we get there? We’ll be in a place we can rest afterwards and it’ll let me really show what I can do. Plus I’d love to see just how strong that fusion can make you.””That. Is an excellent idea” a perfect opportunity to free her too, Midna thought to herself
”Going by all those powers you don't have but the things you’ve dealt with do, it’s going to be a very interesting to get a feel for how you fight.” The old Midna might not have been so up for putting herself in range of that nasty looking axe, but the two new bits of her? Oh an honorable duel style sparring match was right up their alley.
”and we’ll see if you can handle me Red” she concluded, giving a grin that was a little cocky but mostly playfully teasing
The rest of the trip passed without much incident and was filled by light chatter that was entertaining but not particularly enlightening in any way. There was a lovely little stop at a glacial melt oasis, who’s waters were refreshingly cool and pure. A welcome break from the desert before they rode off again, though not before tora acquired a round bird creature as a pet. Mostly the stop made Minda happy that those that had fallen out would have somewhere closer than the city proper to walk to to get food and refreshment.
Before too long they set out again and, after another trip through the dry desert, their destination came into view. A walled city topped by stunning azure (and less stunning green) domes which seemed to have a thing for cow horns. And bells. A bit on the nose. Midna wondered where they kept the actual cows and concluded it was probably round the back as they rolled towards the Town.
”Looks like an actual normal looking city. Now that’s not something I’ve seen yet.” Midna commented, hanging out one of the windows and taking it all in.
”Oh. And it’s probably that one on the map. Means we’re most of the way through the desert” she noted
They rolled in through a gap in the wall without much fanfare, parked the train in a yard which had numerous more beefy and less fantastical trains inside. Those might be handy later, Minda noted, but for now they all disembarked off of their own train, ready to hit the town.
Poppie was all business, wanting to get them to find what was on the road ahead of them as they approached the mountain, and if there was any way to get there. Not a simple task.
Minamoto meanwhile wanted to find a way to fix his sword, something of a big deal seemingly, seeing as he insisted on kneeling before their little condoctore friend when asking about a smith.
”Just remember you’re going to need money for that even if you can find one. For much of anything really. Someone should go see if they can pawn some of our spare items for rupees. Or whatever they use for currency here. See if they accept that paper stuff, but I doubt it.” Midna suggested, not having much fat in a currency that didn’t glitter.
”As for me, well, still up for our match Red?” she asked the hooded woman who she’d picked up a rapport with on the train. It had been one of the more pleasant ones she’d had with the group and she was excited to see what she was made of.
This wasn’t Red’s first trip to Al Mamoon so it wasn’t a shock for her like it was for the others. She even knew her way around town a bit, seeing as she stayed here a couple days before setting off on her mission in Parnasse.
“Oh you know I am.” If her face was visible she’d be smirking. She’d been longing for a good fight for a while now. “Technically I should be reporting my success to the ruler of this place, but this seems like a much better use of my time right now.”
The two of them made their way over to the local guard barracks. Red had ‘borrowed’ their training grounds before to make sure her aim wasn’t getting rusty and that seemed like the perfect place for their little match. She stood on the other side of the grounds from her opponent, twirling the blade around in her hand before preparing herself. Opting not to use the gun for now until she ascertained her training partner’s strength.
“Ready when you are.””How nice of you. One moment then ” The princess floated down onto the ground opposite her, stretched out her arms to crack her knuckles and then unexpectedly did a little dance, fiery and with much foot stomping and tails winging. It was rather awkward without any music, but it also lasted for only four seconds, and then the princess exploded with a flash of purple light that imploded back in towards the princess in a heart beat, surrounding her in an aura of dragon energy.
With the last step of the dance the princess took up a fighting pose as a shadow hand, a massive orange glowing arm) formed out of her twintails using the power of the gilded helmet she wore and flexed and made a fist above her head. Someone was putting on a bit of a show.
”Let’s dance!” she declared, before driving that fist down towards Red in a meteoric punch.
Tilting her head in a bit of confusion as she watched her opponent do… a weird little dance? It looked kinda awkward and weird but then she suddenly burst with a weird purple energy.
“I have no idea what that was, but now I’m even more excited!” She was finally getting a picture of what kind of magical things her opponent was capable of.
She got quite a bit overconfident and decided to use her weapon to try and block the giant punch coming her way and was quickly knocked onto her ass in response.
“Alright, maybe I underestimated you…” she picked herself off the ground and glared right at Midna with her one eye.
“I won’t let that happen again.” Quickly running towards her opponent she prepared to try and duck under another punch while trying to slash with her axe. Hoping to follow it up with a swift kick to Midna’s side.
Just as she’d planned, Midna’s second blow, after she’d reeled in the first, sailed over her head. The princess’s eye went wide in surprise, but she didn’t fail to react, pivoting to the side to take the blade blow on her shoulder guard grunting with pain from the raw impact but being spared its bite.
She didn't handle the kick as well however, the huntress’s blow knocking the lighter Twili away. Using her levitation and one of the spaulder’s powers she slowed, corrected and stabilized the launch and used it to gain distance instead of hitting the deck. As she flew she thrust an arm out, opening a small portal out of which a blast of sand that sang as it flew shot out towards her foe, the princess trying to dissuade Red from immediately following up on her blow, before landing and skidding to a halt.
Her feet steady again, she lashed out with her shadow hand once more, bringing it round in a lower sweeping claw swipe, complete with glowing purple talons on the tips of the hand.
Unfortunately for Red she was stopped by a blast of strange sand that caused her to cover her face as she tried to chase after her opponent. Even that still stung her face as it flew by. She was finishing rubbing the sand out of her eye when she saw the draconic claw coming at her from below. She barely had time to jump over it and potentially leaving herself vulnerable but deciding to try something different. On her way down she tried to bring her axe down on the shadow hand and see if it was vulnerable.
The blow hit the hand down into the ground, staggering Midna’s recovery from the swing, but the blow itself left no mark, the hit either being absorbed or the damage done to the energy limb being repaired so rapidly that it looked invulnerable. Rather than pull it back for another swing, the princess instead made to snatch Red up in the hand’s grasp, its claws dulled and gone but grip likely to be strong.
Without much time to recover Red was swiftly snatched up by the shadow hand. Thankfully Midna wasn’t squeezing too hard, either that or those claws weren’t as sharp as she assumed, but try as she might to thrash in it’s grip it didn’t let go. It was starting to make her just a little bit mad.
While it might have been logical to simply crush Red, like she had tried with Crow, the fact that that hasn't worked the first time on the scoundrel, and the fact that it wasn't very sportswoman like (or really because Minda was enjoying herself to much to consider trying to end things so cheaply so soon), meant that instead of squeezing the hand whipped round the princess's head and then tossed Red across the sandy sparring arena.
Being tossed was certainly not a fun experience for Red and because of the sandy texture of the arena she struggled catching herself and slipped in the process, causing her to hit the ground with a thud. She looked a little disoriented before her head shot up and glared at Midna as a red aura surrounded her and her rage became active.
“Looks like the kid gloves are coming off!” Midna was about to find out the hard way that even in friendly matches Red had a bit of a competitive streak.
With her speed and strength both enhanced Red ran at her opponent again. Charging at her again she went for a feint with her blade from the side and instead attempted to deliver a knee to Midna’s stomach. Normally she would be going for the neck or more hits with her blade, but despite the inherent anger of her power she was still having fun.
The hand came out again, making a grab for the blade as it came in, but only managed to do a palm block before the knee was driven towards Midna’s gut. She instinctively blocked it with what she had, which was her arms, but her form wasn't exactly great or practiced and so it still hurt like hell as she was driven back, her forearms and gut bruised by the empowered blow.
”Goddesses” she swore between her teeth. Now that Red had pulled out some of the stops she was slightly regretting picking a fight without her mount at hand. Well. the permanent one. Sand blasted out from portals again as she tried to buy time to gain ground. That wasn't all though, as a far larger portal opened beside her and her Vibrava flew out. The princess grabbed one of its legs as it ascended, pulling her up into the air, before sending it careening down again while she drifted down to land on the ground further away while her minion attacked.
The Vibrava landed hard, its large size making its path easy enough to predict and dodge but when it did strike the earth it shook the ground, bulldozing the sand outwards from the impact site. Then it dropped into another portal a heartbeat later.
As typical of her when she got into this state Red elected to ignore the sand beating down on her to the best of her abilities. Pushing through it way faster than before. Even still it slowed her down enough to where her attempted attack missed as Midna got pulled up into the air.
“Damn it, you have a lot more tricks than I thought you did.” Seeing as she was living for the thrill of the battle once again she was not too focused on dodging and tried to charge straight at the pokemon that was barreling down at her which unfortunately caused her to get thrown back. While it definitely hurt to get hit by a move like that she was able to land surprisingly well. With her minion gone her eyes turned back to Midna. Red threw the axe at her foe and ran behind it. Attempting to hit Midna with a right hook and following it up with another kick, this time aimed at the face. All in all this was actually really good practice for Red’s hand to hand combat.
As it was for Midna, who slammed her shadow hand down in-front of her to block the axe and the, rather than try and brawl with the woman, used the hand’s palace on the ground to haul herself by the back of the head, hand grip light the sand as she punted herself over red. Drawing the hand back in as she flew she used her actual hands to blast more sand down on top of her. Ineffectual as an eye attack, but that didn't matter. The rest of the sand she’d previously dropped flew towards red as well, forming a localized sandstorm around red as the princess landed behind her.
”These aren't tricks Red, this is Magic!” she declared as she thrust a hand out and opened another portal, this time sending the Wolfos who wasn't currently traipsing through the desert charging towards the woman. The beast, who thanks to Midna’s magic was briefly increased to the size of a healthy rhinoceros, leapt towards the Huntress, jaws wide and with its tongue hanging out one side.
A lot of things happened in Red’s mind all at once. First off she thought it was pretty interesting how Midna decided to dodge her attack. Basically using the hand to pull herself out of the way. Second she thought all of this sand was getting really, really annoying as she struggled to pull herself out of all of it that got dropped onto her before it all got whipped around in a massive sandstorm. And third, she saw the jaws of a massive wolf coming at her. And her mind stopped for a split second. Everything about this fight went completely out the window, this wasn’t a friendly match for Red anymore. All she saw was the Wolf.
She was only immobile for a split second before adrenaline pumped through her veins and she unholstered the gun in a swift movement before pouring several bullets in the wolf's direction before charging at it as well. She dodged to the side of the creature’s jaws and running the blade along the side of the wolf. Screaming at the top of her lungs the entire time. She turned around, charging at the wolf again, jumping and trying to bring the axe down on its neck.
“I’LL HAVE YOUR HEAD!!” It’s like she almost completely forgot Midna was involved in this fight.
The wolf had collapsed, and lay on its side where it had fallen after taking the racking blow, it’s flank bloody with a silvery glowing icor while the mask set atop its snout was pockmarked with bullet holes. Yet before the final blow could be struck, the same portal that had summoned it appeared below it, the heavy beast dropping into it and away from the executioner's blade with only a heartbeat to spare. Red’s axe instead cleaved into the sand and lodged within it.
”Goddesses. Red, are you ok?” came a concerned shout from behind her. Around her the sand whipping through the air and sanding her skin stilled and fell to the ground as Midna carefully approached Red as a friend rather than an opponent.
Before Red’s attack could land the wolf had simply vanished into a portal. Her axe slamming into the ground where the wolf’s neck had just been. But the angry look in her eyes had yet to subside. She started looking in every direction, pointing her gun wherever she was looking. He was doing it again, that tricky bastard was going to show up out of nowhere. But no wolf was found. The only target she could point her gun at was Midna.
“Where is he?! I saw the Wolf, he must have followed me here! I swear that I’ll have his head hanging on a wall for what he’s done!” Red’s mind was far from reasonable right now. The only thing occupying her mind was thoughts of the Wolf.
”He isn’t here. That wasn't him it was just my wolfos” Midna tried to tell her, raising her hands in front of her non threateningly. She’d put two and two together relatively quickly it seemed, though what she didn't know was if this was all Red or if it was just the red in her eye that was causing this.
”It’s ok” she tried to assure Red, and then she flipped a coin and added
”your safe. He can’t hurt you here.”“That was your…” Red started asking a question but stopped midway like she was confused. Her mind just couldn’t comprehend that she didn’t just see the wolf. Was her mind that corrupted by hatred? Or… did Midna help the Wolf? Her clouded mind thought that could be the only reasonable explanation. Just like when those stupid employees took her kill back in the facility, her rage had no outlet. And was unfortunately turned towards the nearest thing. Without any explanation she charged at Midna with her axe, no longer trying to keep the match friendly.
”oh Goddesses” Midna swore, rapidly summoning her shadow hand and grabbing the woman’s axe wielding arm with it. Praying that it was the red in her eyes and not Red herself causing this, the Princess darted/pulled herself in close, ignoring the risk of being kicked, or worse, shot, and stabbing her new friend in the gut with a dragon claw with one hand before pulling out and thrusting a friend heart at her with the other.
Red honestly hadn’t expected her to fully block the attack like that, she expected Midna to run away again. Before she could bring up her gun and react she was hit by a dragon claw to the stomach and she yelled in pain.
“Ah you bi-” And her complaints were cut off by the use of the friend heart. It was like her mind cleared as Galeem’s influence slipped away. She fully remembered what had happened. Her escape from her cell because several other Abnormalities had escaped. The howl of the wolf signaling that things were going to hell. And the white light that she had originally assumed was the godly figure called White Night, but no. It turns out it was Galeem instead. And it was enough of a change to her system that her rage cleared as well and she stumbled backwards, before hitting the ground. She went to check on her wound but noticed it was completely healed.
“How did… what did…” Red quickly realized what she had done. Let her anger get the best of her yet again and almost really hurt her new ally in the process.
“Er, I’m uh… really sorry about all that.” She looked away out of a mixture of embarrassment and shame.
The princess, who had backed off a bit while the effect was ongoing, sighed in relief and dropped her guard.
”oh thank-” she began before coughing and starting again
”It’s fine” she lied, clearly a little shaken,
”one of the thing’s Galeem’s influence does, on top of the whole mental block that should have just cleared up, is make people have less self control and forces them to commit to a fight, a real fight, fully and to not consider stopping, which probably made that worse than it would have been.” ”and I’m also sorry too. I didn't know that would happen, but it was still my fault that it did” she apologized, mostly recovered from her shock as she floated up and towards Red again
”Are you going to be ok?” she asked, hovering to a stop before her.
“I’m sure that didn’t help, but that wasn’t the only thing that caused that.” Red said, shaking her head at the first part.
“Thanks for knocking me out of that. I’m usually not too guilty about killing, but I think I might’ve actually felt bad if I hurt you too bad.” Red started brushing sand off of her clothes and picked herself up off the ground.
“It’s not like you could’ve seen that coming. Not like I’m all that open about my wolf related trauma or anything.” She tried to joke to relieve the tension even though she wasn’t very good at it.
“Yeah I’ll be fine. This has happened plenty of times before. If I ever get like that again just… the only thing that really works is beat some sense into me or let me wear myself out. And hopefully I’ll take it all out on enemies.” This situation just further resolved her desire to kill the wolf. That one day all of this can pass once he’s no longer a threat.
”That... ok” it wasn't really, but she could work with it
”I’ll make sure my wolfos keep their distance then.” There was a tacit suggestion that she’d keep her distance too, Midna realized, and she did not like that because barring the last scare she’d been enjoying Red's company.
”Well then, that’s more than enough sparing for one day so um,” she said, giving her arms a stretch over her head while trying to think where to go from here. She paused half way through the stretch, did a little directionless point with both her fingers as she had an idea, and then asked
”want to go see if this place has ice cream?” she’d had some at the tower once and it seemed like the perfect thing to eat to beat the heat.
While she still had to report to the ruler of this town, Red felt like she needed to make it up to Midna. She didn’t expect to start getting close to anyone in this group but Midna seemed fairly interesting and was surprisingly accepting. Even despite everything that Red had just done.
“Sure, doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” With that the two went off in search of food, and afterwards Red would have to make her way over to reporting to the Cowlipha, finally.
